Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced last month on their platform that they will come up with a unique solution to develop products and campaigns to promote the black community. He announced the steps Google will take to promote racial equality. He said that his search for answers against the structural and systemic racism against Black people began with him listening to the personal accounts of members of their Black Leadership Advisory Group and the Black+ Googlers community. He sympathized with them regarding the inequality of opportunities in all aspects of life hence issued the steps that he and the company will take to ensure an equal platform for all. He has asked everybody at Google to try and make a change for the development of our society. His efforts are aimed to bring meaningful change and improve the lives of all. Google also announced $175 million in economic opportunity packages for black business owners, start-up founders, job seekers, and developers; this will be added to YouTube’s $100 million funds to promote Black creators and artists. He also started a digital program to help mentor black entrepreneurs. Google is also working on improving justice reforms by supporting organizations fighting for the cause. They have also given money for the education of black people to increase their representation in STEM fields. He then went on to mention the steps that Google will take to ensure safety for all the people of the black community throughout the world.
His first goal is to work to improve Black+ representation at senior levels in the company and to improve leadership representation of underrepresented groups by 30 per cent by 2025. Top leadership positions will be given to them; they will recruit and hire more underrepresented Googlers. Their inclusion will help them make better products for all the people around the world.
Secondly, he promised to do more to address representation challenges and focus on hiring, retention, and promotion at all levels. For that, he set up a talent liaison consisting of members from the Black+ community at Google. They will mentor and advocate for the progression and retention of Googlers and report back to him within 90 days.
Sundar Pichai said that the third thing to focus on is to work to create a stronger sense of inclusion and belonging for Googlers in general and our Black+ community in particular. He will ensure psychological safety and raise a feeling of belonging in the work environment. He will ensure sufficient opportunities are given to help them grow their careers and put in place more inclusive practices and policies.
The fourth point he mentioned was to establish a range of anti-racism educational programs that are global in view and able to scale to all Googlers. He will invite experts to educate the employees regarding the racial history and inequality so that people can reflect on them and help in removing racism.
Lastly, his fifth point was to focus on better support for the mental, physical health, and well-being of our Black+ community. They have already made medical second opinion service available for the family members of Googlers. And are working on providing them with a tag of ‘black-owned’ on google to support their businesses. Google is also working on their hate and harassment policy across all their platforms. The steps taken by Google will encourage other companies to come forward and support the black community.
